Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1887-10-13

got to have the sky and chance to
breathe. It's about all there is to get,
| better than he can have anywhere
| else; but it's sure fact that so much
he's got to have, whatever else gets
left It's like a poem, maybe-"I
amt much on rhyme" myself driving
across them in warm weather;
| horses fresh and well fed, with a big
tent and spring cots for camping and
a supply wagon with everything you
can think of but ice, and maybe that;
all the world a-ripple with summer
green; the south wind surging like a
warm ocean, and the sky blue and
soft and arching away up to the
| great wide throne. That's one thing.
To go trailing a.ong, horses dead
beat and kalf-starved, pulling big
wagon through sloughs up to the axles
or over frozen ruts that wiring every
bolt in the concern and every bone in
your body; with mile after mile of dead
grass stretching out to the edge of the
world; with buzzards swinging up out
of nowhere, more like something in
! fernal than any decent live thing; with
coyotes yelping and crying all night
! that's another thing, and the kind that
| doesn't get talked about much. Per-
| haps you remember that item in last
winters newspapers, half-dozen
| lines or so--two families frozen in
Texas norther, horse, dogs, and all,
just as they stood.
That night we went into camp ten
miles from home. There was ravine
and plenty of brush, and the horses
were ready to drop in their tracks,
and that last ten miles. was one of the
things that couldn't be done. So we
got our fires made and our horses fed
and sheltered as we'll as we could, and
| put some heart into ourselves with
| buffalo steak and hot coffee; and the
rest of them packed themselves into the
wagon. Some one had to stand guard
and keep the fires going, and | took
the contract.
1t wasn't dark night There was
a goodish bit of moon behind the
clouds, and it made a gray kind of
light over everything. We were at
the bottom of u dry canon that ran
east and west, and the wind did not
reach us. 1t screeched and screamed
over our heads, and through it all there
was kind of moaning roar, as if we
were at the bottom of tide as deep as
the stars are high. got to thinking
about old times away back, of one
Sunday night just before we were
married. | had gone East a little
sooner than we expected and had to
wait for her things TO be finished. We
went to church that night. A keen,
crisp, still night it was. when the
sleigh-runners squeaked on the snow
and the moonlight traced the shadows
of the elms on the white ground as if
they had been put in black drawing.
The church was warm and bright, and
they hadn't taken down the Christ
mas greens yet, so the air was full of
the smell OF thom-that spicy, haunt
| ing smell. that seems as If il came
somehow from world before this. 1t
was years since had smeiled it,
and | sat and listened 10 the music
| ana looked ut the people, with their
comfortable cluthing and faces that
were cheerful, not worn ami wriukled
with care and w.st rr. Molly was an
| awfuliy prety g.rl in those days; all
pink and lusc ~ an ap lie blossom,
somehow. And iirnii,.s to keep
awake out there "a tie ccart Of Kan
sas prairie got 20 thinking about her
as she was thaa and how she had
changed Skin the color of tanned |
leather now, and that lid, hungry look |
in her blue eyes, as il they were always |
staring into the dark for something
that frightened her. And both her |
children dead, an not even spray |
of the pine she Lowell -, FOR breath |
of music; nothing but Il dirt floor aud |
log walls thst did all that was ex-
pected of them if they kept the weather |
out
Somebody hailed over the top Of the
blrtf.
What camps tha,?'
kenyon and mates"
- lowed i was Scrambling down |
the sides of the guich OH his sure
footed mulc--"Yon Kenyon? News
for You. A kal MP to your ranch 10 |
days old. All hands doing well yes
terday morn ~
TIE rest ruRS~d e,naelvcs, slecpily. |
He had got iii the tra l. and seeing
our smoke hat struck Tor it. We knew |
aud he knew that the chances were
that It saved lis lifa; but ne swallowed |
his coffee and smoked his Pipe aud |
turned in with the rest as IL getting |
lost in a norther was one OF the things |
that happened, .of course, to every
man.
Then | sat and thought while. and
finally l reused ont Madison.
You take my turn said 10 him,
''I'm going home. "
mot Il brute that will travel"
you'll pass in your check before
morning"
NO; the wind is at my back; no
fords; I'll keep going" aud went.
Went; bali running, with the wind
driving me on lll | was ready to
drop. O1cp fell and lay there, with
the wind dragging and tearing nj me,
until began 10 gros sleepy, and then
| had 20 get up and 20 ahead again.
Perhaps YOU never tried crossing a
prairie at night without trail 10 fol-
low. It's curious thing, one can't
account for: one chat makes you feel
rs If your body and all your senses
were of no more account than spent
cartridge. II happened TO me that
night. space and time seemed 10 ret
all mixed up together all at once rae
ing along; it seemed TO me that bad
been up to that sort of thing for hours
itlb 81 dWlllA cDiilt4OM--~Sn iOlitOtN |
lost--as if I had slipped out Of my
self, and was out in space without land
mark to measure anything By, ! ex-
pect you'll have TO try it yourself TO
know what ! mean. | had no watch;
there was no way of knowing how
much time had gone. Ofall the devils
that can enter into man uncertainty
is the worst. Every sort of fancy
came into my head. Perhaps l did
not know the route as well as
thought. Perhaps | had even passed
the cabins aud was going away from
them with every step. / ought to have
reached them in three hours at the ut
most. II seemed to me that had been
hurting along for twice three hours.
Once tried madly TO fight into the
wind. Il was hopeless-worse than
useless. / should drop with exhaus-
ton in a few minutes, and must keep
going.
And then found burned grass I'M
der my feet. There had been fire over
the prairie. The ground was not cold
yet A new dread got hold Of me.
Who knew where il had gone or what
had stood in its track? / ran along
screaming something praying or
swearing-quite mad, | think. for a
little, till | fell again. and the jar
brought me to my senses.
| had gone over the edge of an old